Page:Thirty-five years of Luther research.djvu/38

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Thirty-Five Years of Luther Research

are longer and are attached to the explained texts co-ordinately. Ficker remarks: "These 'Scholien' of the 'Magister' are, as a rule, not intended as explanations for the individual phrases; in arbitrary manner they are based on one passage and ignore the other, and they do not always adhere strictly to the sequences of the verses. Their object lies more in the representation of the main thoughts, and they are more examining and systematical. Here was — also in this respect Luther had his predecessors — the place for mental excursions, which he used at the same time for clear definitions of the basic problems of religion and for arguments with his opponents, or which, through the strength of his ethical energy, he used for practical explanations and uses of the scriptural truth. Sometimes they reach out far, and later on they concern themselves more and more with contemporaneous history." Combining "Glossen" and "Scholien" Luther created the text which he gave in his lectures to the students.

New material from the years following this period has made us better acquainted with seven fields of endeavor in Luther's work: his exegetical lectures, his own debates, his translation work of the Bible, his homiletical and catechetical endeavors, his large correspondence, and his table-talks.

Of his exegetical lectures we now know the following, either for the first time or in their revised text: Operationes in Psalmos of 1519-1521 (Weim. ed. vol. V); the Lectures on Deuteronomy of 1523-1524 (Wei. ed. vol. 14); Prælectiones in Prophetas minores of 1524-1526 (Wei. ed. vol. 20); Lectures on First Epistle of St. John of 1527 (Wei. ed. vol. 20); Declamationes in Genesin of 1527 (Weim. ed. vol. 24); Lectures on Epistles to Titus and Philemon of 1527 (Wei. ed. vol. 25); Lectures on Isaiah of 1527-1530 (Wei. ed. vols. 25; 31, 2); Lectures on First Epistle to Timothy of 1528 and Lectures on Song of Solomon of 1530 (Wei. ed. vol. 31, 3); Lec-